In Iceland, we were lucky enough to pick airbnbs where noise wasn’t a problem. But our suitcase studio life — setting up and making music around the space where we live — hit a snag in Vienna, where our welcome packet spelled out: “yes, you may play the piano, but only with headphones on”. The landlord claimed he had installed a DB meter to track how loud his clients were. We didn’t necessarily believe it, but we needed to find somewhere else to make noise. What followed was a few weeks of running around the city, taking huge advantage of the well-appointed and cheap rehearsal spaces of MusikQuartier — these are spaces with pretty great grand pianos, decent isolation, costing around 10 bucks an hour. Both songs were recorded in a first-take’s-fine-go-go-go 3 hour span racing from rehearsal room to room. On “No More Love Songs”, we managed to track not just their excellent grand piano, but a decent nylon string guitar, a harpischord and a big electronic church organ thingy. We started “Hidden From Myself” the same way, sequencing the drums at home in shhhhh silence before going into MusikQuartier to track Lou’s piano and vocals and packing up quick to write and record a bass part in another room.

What are we doing here? Why are we working this way? These are the questions we ask as we listen to the results from this caffeine-fueled madness. There are memories of an old producer friend who said “yeah, I learned to stop putting roadblocks in my own way awhile ago.” Are we involved in an amazing experiment or are we just putting shit in our own way? Is this leading anywhere coherent? The threads connect in the songwriting, I think. But will the iceland songs hang out with the Vienna songs? Will the Armenia songs scoff and look away?

Unclear.

Vienna’s an odd place. It’s old, stubborn to change, drunk, grand, and goddamn if the waiters don’t all wear neat little bowties and smile just so. We loved our time there and the people we met, the strudel we ate (even if it is just a worse apple pie), all the finery and statues, the transport that just works, all of it. Great place.